[ARMS] Very basic rotation questions

Do you ...
a) Mortal Strike immediately, wasting an Overpower proc but keeping MS on cd
b) Spend Overpower procs and then MS once Overpower is disabled

It's hard to find good guides for Arms so far. Based on how Fury plays, I'm assuming keeping MS on cd is top priority, but it just feels really weird/bad to "waste" a free Overpower by MS'ing when Overpower is already proc'd.

As Arms, I'm not sure what is more important...
a) Accumulating Taste for Blood charges (don't spam low-TFB HStrikes during CSmash)
b) Dumping as much Rage as possible during CSmash (so ignore TFB and spam HStrike regardless of stacks during CSmash)

In the first scenario I use mortal strike. Despite wasting an overpower proc it can crit much harder than OP, allows the use of OP anyway, and shouldn't be clipped due to the enrage proc. To put it simply, the possibility to become enrage outweights pretty much everything else.

In the second scenario, your rage dump thresholds are the following:
1) Slam if you are not GCD capped by OP procs and are over 60 rage.
2) heroic strike if a) you are above 90 rage and b) if you are global capped during OP procs and are approaching the rage cap.

As for dumping rage during CS, I dont advise it outside of Deadly Calm. People might tell you otherwise but if you go too crazy and then get no OP procs you're shit out of luck because all of you have left is slam, and yu'll probably only have ~40 rage once you cast overpower. 1 Slam won't be enough to help you maintain your DPS

I seem to be ranking fairly high on all fights doing so, so I must be doing something right

I disagree with the advise given on MS over OP. Do not use MS over OP ever, imo. First of all OP's crit chance is absurdly high and pretty much guarantees consistent dmg, as opposed to the possibility of a crit. I'm looking at my last recount right now and I am seeing a whooping 89.4% to crit with OP (with all raid buffs). Granted, Laundry is right in a sense because MS hits fairly hard... even a normal MS hit avgs to just below an OP Crit hit (and it's crit is double that dmg), but I think there's something else that is not being taken into account. By choosing to use MS over OP you are wasting chance to gain the Taste for Blood proc which is also incredibly powerful. This last week I've been studying many top arms logs and they seem to always prioritize use of OP over MS.

Your second question is also something I'm struggling with. Honestly I just think it's important to have CS on cooldown and not worry so much about how much you can fit in the 6 sec window, like in fury. I think it's important that you always benefit from a possible "Sudden death" proc. Obviously the things you want to be using during the window are the hard hitting stuff (HS with TFB procs, slam, OP and MS), but again I'm unsure about all this but I have a feeling that keeping a more or less consistent uptime on CS by benefiting from Sudden Death is more important than dumping a la fury.

Mortal Strike > Overpower, always, unless you are 120/120 Rage. (If you actually get to 120 rage, you weren't paying attention to your Heroic Strikes to be honest. )

Mortal Strike has priority. It's your most damage dealing ability, it provides you rage and gives the Deep Wounds debuff. Also, the Overpower procs you get from Mortal Strike stack up to 5 times, so no need to use a GCD instead of Mortal Strike.

To put it simply, the possibility to become enrage outweights pretty much everything else.

I believe your advice is sound here. I shifted my priority to always use MStrike and just ignore overwriting Overpower procs, and I noticed a positive effect on DPS performance. Sometimes Overpower chain-proccing could push MS back by 2-3 (even 4) GCDs, and this was probably having a bad effect on overall Enrage uptime.

As for dumping rage during CS, I dont advise it outside of Deadly Calm. People might tell you otherwise but if you go too crazy and then get no OP procs you're shit out of luck because all of you have left is slam, and yu'll probably only have ~40 rage once you cast overpower.

This seems good, too. I stopped the Fury mentality of "CSmash = must empty Rage bar" and I seem to be doing better, probably because more of my Rage is going into Slams (and is pre-pooled for Executes) instead of non-TFB HStrikes during CSmash windows.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by Amne

Also, the Overpower procs you get from Mortal Strike stack up to 5 times, so no need to use a GCD instead of Mortal Strike.

Taste For Blood stacks to 5, Overpower activating does not. You can only Overpower once per activation, whether it's from MStrike, target Dodge, or Overception proc chains, and these will all overwrite each other so that glowing Overpower = 1 use before it grays.

Taste For Blood stacks to 5, Overpower activating does not. You can only Overpower once per activation, whether it's from MStrike, target Dodge, or Overception proc chains, and these will all overwrite each other so that glowing Overpower = 1 use before it grays.

Correct, not sure what I was thinking there. Probably messed it up with the Overpower procs you can get from using Overpower.

This last week I've been studying many top arms logs and they seem to always prioritize use of OP over MS.

No they're not. Overpower is their top damage because they get lots and lots of procs, but it depends on RNG. If OP>MS were the case chances are they wouldn't slam at all, or at least have very very little (Like, sub 15) and their mortal strike damage distribution wouldn't be close to what overpower's would.